Funeral fit for a heroine: Town turns out to pay respects to WWII spy who died forgotten and alone

It took seven decades and a belated
helping hand but the nation finally paid its debt yesterday to the spy
we left out in the cold .

In a send-off fit for a heroine,
wartime undercover agent Eileen Nearne was given a guard of honour and
a remarkable show of public gratitude at a funeral that might
otherwise have passed unnoticed.

Three weeks ago, the 89-year-old
spinster was destined to make her final journey in a modest municipal
ceremony, unmourned and unrecognised beyond her life as an elderly
recluse with no known friends or relatives.

Respects: Eileen Nearne died alone - but mourners packed into the church for her funeral

Prayers: The funeral was held at Our Lady Help of Christians and St Denis Roman Catholic Church in Torquay

Yesterday, after the extent of her
courage behind enemy lines during the Second World War was revealed,
she was honoured as one of the secret heroines who helped Britain win
the struggle against Hitler.

Miss Nearne was part of an elite band of women in the Special Operations Executive, sending vital information back to Britain from under the noses of the Nazis occupying France.

She survived discovery, capture, and
torture by the Gestapo, escaping three times from prison camps to
continue her work at great personal risk.

By the time the war was over, she
had sent more than 100 coded messages across the Channel, a feat that
saved countless lives and helped to bring the conflict to a close.

Yet, despite being made an MBE, as
well as winning citations for gallantry and the French Croix de Guerre,
the London-born linguist faded into virtual anonymity.

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She suffered a breakdown because of
her experiences and, after recovering, worked as a nurse before living
out her twilight years in Torquay.

When she died alone of a heart
attack in her small but elegant flat, it was several days before anyone
noticed. Only when council officials searched her papers did the secret
she had kept so modestly emerge.

The quiet, grey-haired lady with a
fondness for her ginger cat was the mysterious Mademoiselle du Tort –
codename Rose – who put her life on the line all those years ago.

Solemn: A bugler from the French army stands guard as the coffin of Eileen Nearne is led into the church

Pride: Miss Nearne's coffin is draped with a Union flag while British Legion members stand by

Members of the British Legion and the bugler pay their respects to Miss Nearne

Female and British Legion soldiers salute as Miss Nearne's coffin passes by

So instead of a low-budget coffin
and a routine prayer at her cremation, they draped a Union Flag over
her casket yesterday and gave her a piper escort into the
cathedral-like magnificence of the Church of Our Lady Help of
Christians & St Denis in St Marychurch, Devon, where 350 waited to
pay tribute.

The Royal British Legion, military charities, well-wishers and a local funeral director gladly paid the bill.

Senior
representatives of the Armed Forces and Foreign Office joined the
tribute, as did the French embassy and the mayor of Torbay.

A parson from FANY – the First Aid
Nursing Yeomanry, in which she served before joining the SOE – read a
eulogy. A minute's silence was observed before buglers from the French
army and Royal Marines sounded the Last Post.

War hero: Eileen Nearne, who was tortured by the Nazis, died aged 89

The most poignant tribute, however, was the attendance of so many people who never knew her.

Crowds lined streets around the
cortege route and scores turned up for the funeral, clearly touched by
her lifetime reluctance to talk about what she did; and slightly
ashamed, perhaps, that the country she served had forgotten her for so
long.

Whitehall stopped her meagre pension five years after the war and apparently lost track of her existence.

John Pentreath, of the Royal British
Legion, 'marvelled' at her courage and said: 'This woman went to hell
and back; no doubt about it. Unfortunately nobody knew about her until
it was too late.'

An exhaustive search for surviving
relatives eventually revealed family living in Italy. Her niece Odile
Nearne told the congregation her Aunt Didi, as she knew her,
'sacrificed her private life for her homeland' and was 'determined in
her patriotic views'.

She described her aunt as a 'very
modest and private person' who would be 'astounded' by all the
attention, as befitting a woman who spent much of her life alone or
undercover.

The first messages that Miss Nearne
keyed in after parachuting into France, we learned, identified the
location near Paris where the Germans had stashed 2,000 London-bound
V-1 rockets, the most feared and destructive weapon of the Blitz.

She knew it had been received
successfully when the BBC slipped a pre-arranged, coded response into
one of its broadcasts. The message said: 'Happy to know that the duck
has had a good trip.'

Yesterday, at last, everyone made
sure the duck was afforded another good trip. Just as she wished, her
ashes are to be scattered at sea.